diff --git a/scripts/ngrams.py b/scripts/ngrams.py
index 8c64ae6..55b6503 100755
--- a/scripts/ngrams.py
+++ b/scripts/ngrams.py
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 import sys
 import os
+import pickle
 
 libdir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)), '../lib')
 sys.path.append(libdir)
 import jdecode
-
+import nltk_model as model
 
 def update_ngrams(lines, gramdict, grams):
     for line in lines:
@@ -35,34 +36,66 @@ def describe_bins(gramdict, bins):
             print ('  ' + (str(bins[i]) if i < len(bins) else str(bins[-1]) + '+') 
                    + ': ' + str(counts[i]))
 
-def main(fname, oname, gmin = 2, gmax = 8, verbose = True):
-    gmin = int(gmin)
-    gmax = int(gmax)
-    bins = [1, 2, 3, 10, 30, 100, 300, 1000]
-    if gmin < 2 or gmax < gmin:
-        print 'invalid gram sizes: ' + str(gmin) + '-' + str(gmax)
-        exit(1)
+def extract_language(cards, separate_lines = True):
+    if separate_lines:
+        lang = [line.vectorize() for card in cards for line in card.text_lines]
+    else:
+        lang = [card.text.vectorize() for card in cards]
+    return map(lambda s: s.split(), lang)
 
+def build_ngram_model(cards, n, separate_lines = True, verbose = False):
+    if verbose:
+        print('generating ' + str(n) + '-gram model')
+    lang = extract_language(cards, separate_lines=separate_lines)
+    if verbose:
+        print('found ' + str(len(lang)) + ' sentences')
+    lm = model.NgramModel(n, lang)
+    if verbose:
+        print(lm)
+    return lm
+
+def main(fname, oname, gmin = 2, gmax = 8, nltk = False, sep = False, verbose = False):
     # may need to set special arguments here
     cards = jdecode.mtg_open_file(fname, verbose=verbose)
+    gmin = int(gmin)
+    gmax = int(gmax)
 
-    for grams in range(gmin, gmax+1):
+    if nltk:
+        n = gmin
+        lm = build_ngram_model(cards, n, separate_lines=sep, verbose=verbose)
         if verbose:
-            print 'generating ' + str(grams) + '-grams...'
-        gramdict = {}
-        for card in cards:
-            update_ngrams(card.text_lines_words, gramdict, grams)
-    
-        oname_full = oname + '.' + str(grams) + 'g'
+            teststr = 'when @ enters the battlefield'
+            print('litmus test: perplexity of ' + repr(teststr))
+            print('  ' + str(lm.perplexity(teststr.split())))
         if verbose:
-            print '  writing ' + str(len(gramdict)) + ' unique ' + str(grams) + '-grams to ' + oname_full
-            describe_bins(gramdict, bins)
+            print('pickling module to ' + oname)
+        with open(oname, 'wb') as f:
+            pickle.dump(lm, f)
 
-        with open(oname_full, 'wt') as f:
-            for ngram in sorted(gramdict,
-                                lambda x,y: cmp(gramdict[x], gramdict[y]),
-                                reverse = True):
-                f.write((ngram + ': ' + str(gramdict[ngram]) + '\n').encode('utf-8'))
+    else:
+        bins = [1, 2, 3, 10, 30, 100, 300, 1000]
+        if gmin < 2 or gmax < gmin:
+            print 'invalid gram sizes: ' + str(gmin) + '-' + str(gmax)
+            exit(1)
+
+        for grams in range(gmin, gmax+1):
+            if verbose:
+                print 'generating ' + str(grams) + '-grams...'
+            gramdict = {}
+            for card in cards:
+                update_ngrams(card.text_lines_words, gramdict, grams)
+
+            oname_full = oname + '.' + str(grams) + 'g'
+            if verbose:
+                print('  writing ' + str(len(gramdict)) + ' unique ' + str(grams) 
+                      + '-grams to ' + oname_full)
+                describe_bins(gramdict, bins)
+
+            with open(oname_full, 'wt') as f:
+                for ngram in sorted(gramdict,
+                                    lambda x,y: cmp(gramdict[x], gramdict[y]),
+                                    reverse = True):
+                    f.write((ngram + ': ' + str(gramdict[ngram]) + '\n').encode('utf-8'))
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     
@@ -77,9 +110,14 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
                         help='minimum gram size to compute')
     parser.add_argument('-max', '--max', action='store', default='8',
                         help='maximum gram size to compute')
+    parser.add_argument('-nltk', '--nltk', action='store_true',
+                        help='use nltk model.NgramModel, with n = min')
+    parser.add_argument('-s', '--separate', action='store_true',
+                        help='separate card text into lines when constructing nltk model')
     parser.add_argument('-v', '--verbose', action='store_true', 
                         help='verbose output')
 
     args = parser.parse_args()
-    main(args.infile, args.outfile, gmin=args.min, gmax=args.max, verbose=args.verbose)
+    main(args.infile, args.outfile, gmin=args.min, gmax=args.max, nltk=args.nltk,
+         sep=args.separate, verbose=args.verbose)
     exit(0)